16 GB Nexus 7 Followup, or, How NOT to do customer service

I wrote about my problems with the Nexus 7 10 days ago. In the mean time, Google employees have tried to help me solve the problem. Some promised that the update to 4.1.2 would fix the problem, and well, after updating i, I tried it and I'm down to 43 IOPS on the write. Not the abysmal 13 it used to be, but a far cry from what it ought to be.

Google's customer service has promised an RMA. Well, after putting a hold on my credit card for $250, the replacement Nexus 7 still has not shipped. I called customer service last Friday, and they said, "the order is stuck in the "shipping" status, I'm referring you to a shipping specialist." E-mails to the specialist have yielded no results other than, "I'm looking into it for you."

Coincidentally, 2 weeks ago I had something similar happen to an Amazon order. I'd ordered some crayons, and a week later, the item was still in "Shipping" status with no change. But there's a million light years' worth of difference between Google and Amazon's customer service. While Google's doing their best to piss me off, Amazon's customer service rep said, "You know what, I've only seen this happen once before, and here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to upgrade you to one day shipping, and send off a duplicate order for you. If you end up with two of the same thing, just keep them both." Guess who's going to keep me buying from them time after time?

The same goes for Canon. Ironically, the only major corporation I've had experience with that was as arrogant as Google has been Apple. When I RMA'd my 2006 Mac Mini, they made me return the old one before shipping me a new one, leaving me without a machine for a week and a bad taste in my mouth. Google's not quite that bad, but the longer this goes on, the tougher it would be for me to forgive them.

Given the state of the iPad Mini announcement and pricing today, I'm guessing the Nexus 7 will do particularly well. But if you want a good product, do not order the 16GB one. Or if you do, be prepared for the customer service experience to be horrid.